in this press conference bin laden goes public with al qaeda's plans to attack the united states. bin laden had turned a corner with his declaration of war. no longer would he just attack the u.s. military or u.s. leaders. now he was saying that the american people would be legitimate targets. >> my name is hamid mir. and i met osama bin laden first time in tora bora mountains. >> reporter: journalist hamid mir is writing an authorized biography of bin laden. he interviewed the al qaeda leader three times during the 1990s. how did he justify the killing of innocent americans? >> he said that, yes, the killing of innocent children and women is not permitted in islam. but if they are killing our innocent children, if they are providing weapons to the israelis and to the other anti-muslim forces to kill muslims, then we have the right to respond back in the same manner. >> reporter: while bin laden believed he had a political justification for killing american civilians, he needed the trappings of clerical legitimacy. that would come in the form of a fatwa, a religious decree from sh